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SPORTS
Landon: Next stop for Herd fans is Margaritaville
ORLANDO, Fla. — I know exactly what Jimmy Buffett would say.
Weather was here.
Wish the performances were beautiful.
That summarizes the state of West Virginia’s collegiate football vacation to Florida last weekend.
Imagine a rancid cheeseburger in paradise.
That is the nauseating after-taste Marshall University and West Virginia University fans alike still can’t stomach today.
First, there was the Mountaineers’ surprisingly one-sided 30-19 loss to South Florida in Tampa Friday.
Then, there was the Herd’s stunning 21-20 defeat to UCF in the closing seconds here Sunday night.
What’s worse, both meltdowns occurred on ESPN’s family of networks. That just made it more embarrassing.
It’s bad enough to choke, gag and fold in front of thousands of fans. But it’s downright humiliating when it occurs on a national stage.
Any stools open at Margaritaville?
We certainly need something to dull the pain.
This is how bad it was.
WVU head coach Bill Stewart was so fed up with the Mountaineers’ performance he waved off the final six seconds of the defeat.
“At that point, I was done,” Stewart told the media on his weekly teleconference Sunday. “I was not going to watch anymore of that. ... They could throw me off the field if they wanted to.”
As for Marshall, the Herd squandered a 20-7 lead in truly astonishing fashion. When UCF lined up at Marshall’s 1-yard line with 23 seconds remaining, no Herd defender took Knights’ wide receiver Rocky Ross.
He was home alone.
So alone, in fact, Ross began waving to UCF quarterback Brett Hodges, who promptly passed to the lonesome split end for the stunningly easy game-winning touchdown.
“It was a good call,” UCF head coach George O’Leary told the Orlando Sentinel. “They didn’t cover him. There was no one on him.”
That was. ... inexcusable.
My word, not Mark Snyder’s.
Instead, Marshall’s fifth-year head coach used a different — and somewhat perplexing — word.
Wacky.
That’s right, wacky.
“It’s one of the wackier games I’ve ever been in, in my whole coaching career, with what went down at the end, because I felt like we dominated the game,” Snyder was quoted.
Sorry, but “wacky” doesn’t begin to do this incredible mistake justice.
Mismanaged is a much more appropriate description. And I didn’t even need to consult a thesaurus to find it.
Perhaps, that’s because we have witnessed this poor game management so many times during the last five seasons.
Marshall’s incomprehensible 23-21 loss to UAB last season leaps to mind. Then, there was the unforgettable 48-35 humiliation at the hands of New Hampshire in 2007.
And remember ’05?
First, there was the deer-in-the-headlights coaching at the end of Marshall’s 21-19 loss to Kansas State. Then, later that same season, there were the ill-fated field goal decisions in the 27-24 overtime loss to Southern Miss.
That’s why this most recent loss is so discouraging and so frustrating, yet also so numbing.
We watched it happen in Game No. 2 of Snyder’s tenure and we’re still witnessing it in Game No. 56.
All too often, game day is a roller-coaster.
And it doesn’t take a trip here to Disney World to ride it.
So much for the football vacation.
Now, it’s time to come home.
But, unfortunately, the problems that surfaced here last weekend are coming with us.
And it is time to deal with them.
With or without a lost shaker of salt.
Chuck Landon is a sports columnist for The Herald-Dispatch. Call him at 304-526-2827. E-mail him at clandon@herald-dispatch.com.
